The Seven Deadly Sins
by terripotter5
Summary: Moments before his prophesised defeat, Voldemort cast an unknown spell on the very foundations of Hogwarts. The race is on to find the affected students lest their souls be lost forever in Eternal Damnation. Disregards HBP and DH completely.
1. The Dilemma

The dilemma

The defeat of the tyrant Tom Riddle was celebrated for weeks. The man himself had appeared in the Great Hall of Hogwarts during the Welcoming Feast by use of a PortKey, duelled with Harry Potter and was soundly defeated. The victory was aided by Severus Snape having alerted the Order of the Phoenix of the Dark Wizards machinations, allowing the entire Order and many seventh and sixth years to be present, with the younger years being kept away by the Hogwarts Express being delayed a few hours. The Death Eaters, who had attempted to PortKey in along with their leader, had been magically diverted into ministry holding cells, ensuring that the evil wizard was alone in the confrontation.

It was not the glorious battle that Dumbledore had envisioned for Harry, what with 50 or so witches and wizards firing spells at the megalomaniac, but Harry had got in the parting shot that finished him.

Nevertheless, Dumbledore was fretting. Riddle had cast an unknown spell just prior to his downfall, and no matter how many times he reviewed the memory in his Pensieve, Dumbledore could not hear what was said when it was cast. He was worried. There was no way that the spell cast was harmless; it was common sense to realise that a cornered animal will fight to the death, and Tom Riddle had been the proverbial cornered animal. The discharge from the spell had been a poisonous coloured green that had seeped into the very foundations of the school. He resigned himself to seeking others memories of the event to see if theirs were clearer than his own.

A week of studying the memories of those who had been present at the final battle had unearthed a result. Harry Potter and Hermione Granger had both heard the same casting words; _omnis mortilus sin super illud intus, _or in English 'all mortal sins upon those within'.The other memories had heard hissing, but due to their being further away from the caster, the words had not imprinted upon their memories.

It was grim indeed. A senior staff meeting had been called, and Dumbledore was awaiting the arrival of his teachers.

Minerva entered first, as always hoping to get an inkling of what was to be discussed, Filius and Pomona followed, and Severus arrived the moment the clock struck the hour.

"Can we get on with this Headmaster? I have potions to make and papers to grade." Severus said impatiently.

"Very well Severus, be seated and I will explain. You all know that Tom Riddle cast an unknown spell before his defeat, yes?" Filius and Pomona nodded, but Minerva frowned and Severus scowled.

"You have yet to return our memories." Severus intoned testily.

"Ah! I apologise. Here, I have them in my Pensieve." He said, reaching into a drawer for the large stone basin. The memories were returned, and when everyone was seated again, he continued.

"I have gathered other memories besides yours, and now know the spell that was cast. Riddle said '_omnis mortilus sin super illud intus'._"

There were looks of understanding and then confusion upon the faces of his staff, and Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, roughly translated it is 'all mortal sins upon those within'. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a problem. The seven cardinal sins of Catholicism have been inflicted on Hogwarts." He continued.

There were further looks of confusion from three of the teachers, only Severus, who was raised in the Muggle world, seemed to understand. He explained it to them impatiently.

"In Catholicism, it is said that there are a number of sins that when committed, damage the soul and guarantee Eternal Damnation in Hell. Only by actively practicing the opposing virtues and purification by a priest will cleanse the soul and allow passage into heaven."

Dumbledore nodded in agreement, but was pleased by the extra information Severus had given. He had found little reference to ridding people of the sins, so Severus had just offered him an alley to explore to save their damned souls.

"Severus is correct, but I am unsure of how to lift this curse for the moment. I will research more into this, but that does not help us now. It is possible that the personifications of these 'deadly sins' are corrupting the students. For their safety, we_ must _find out who they are; their very souls are in danger."

"But, what _are_ we looking for Albus?" Minerva asked.

"The seven sins are known as; Greed, Envy, Pride, Sloth, Wrath, Lust and Gluttony." He replied.

"But Albus," Pomona intervened, "I could point out that everyone I know shows at least two of those. How on earth are we supposed to find them?" Filius nodded in agreement.

"For the unfortunate seven that are affected, they will most likely have already had a high level of one of the traits before the casting. But now, after a month of festering, I predict that the traits will have taken over, and should be relatively easy to spot. If you think you have identified one of the affected, we must act and possibly isolate them."

"I bet Potter is Pride." Severus said nastily.

Minerva looked over at him with a glare. "Have you not seen the poor boy recently Severus? He's so cut up about what he had to do, he's barely functioning. Even Poppy doesn't know what to do."

"Well if _I'd_ defeated the Dark Lord, _I'd_ be dancing for bloody joy." Severus sneered.

"Not all of us are like you Severus. Now that is everything for now, I'll let you know what I find." Dumbledore concluded.

Hermione Granger sat at the Gryffindor table at breakfast revising for the N.E.W.T's. Although they were 10 months away, she wanted the best grades she could. She was reading up on the necessary wand movements when transfiguring a small object into something much larger, when a greasy piece of fried egg-white flopped onto the text before her. Outraged, she looked up at Ron Weasley who sat opposite her, and was inwardly disgusted at the manners he obviously lacked. He was practically inhaling everything within his reach, and showed no sign of stopping. This wasn't a recent occurrence as Ron had always lacked table manners, despite Mrs Weasley's attempts to drill them into him; but the vigour he showed towards anything ingestible had shown a marked increase over the past month.

"Hungry Ron?" she commented with a sneer, vanishing the grease on her previously pristine textbook.

He nodded, mouth bulging with half-chewed food and attempted to speak, but it came out as "arbim. A cub eeb a hibborbiff." He practically sprayed her with food, so she cast a mild shielding charm to protect herself from the assault.

Hermione looked towards Harry for support, but he just looked at her depressively. Madam Pomfrey had said he had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and that he hadn't come to terms with killing Voldemort. Recently it seemed he had a raincloud following him around everywhere, and had even tried to quit the Quidditch Team, despite being its Captain for only a month. Luckily, McGonagall had stepped in with the belief that keeping active was better for him than mouldering in Gryffindor Tower, and so Harry was forced to keep participating.

Hermione did empathise with him, remembering the depression that she had suffered with after the Department of Mysteries fiasco, but she couldn't help but feel that Harry was overdoing it a bit. He had defeated the most evil man in modern times and had avenged the death of his parents; and yet they had to drag him out of bed every morning, set clean robes out for him, and put the food on his plate. Ron had even had to help him shower this morning, annoyed as he had been that Harry had delayed him getting to breakfast.

Ginny arrived, and despite the ample space next to Hermione, she slipped into the tiny gap between Ron and Harry, practically plastering herself against the melancholy 'Boy Who Conquered'. She looked on with distaste when Ginny began hand-feeding Harry, giving him small nibbling kisses between bites.

_War affects everyone in different ways_, she told herself whilst looking sadly at her friends.

Dumbledore looked out sombrely at the dining students. Logic told him that he couldn't have prevented the spell being cast; nevertheless he felt an immense guilt at endangering his students further. Severus' comment of Harry most likely channelling Pride had struck a nerve within him. If anyone deserved peace, it was Harry Potter, and the fact that his soul could be bound for Eternal Damnation filled him with fear.

He looked over at the boy and sighed when he saw him slumped over the table.

Thinking of the problem of actually identifying the affected students, common sense told him that the easiest of the sins to spot should be Gluttony, which made it ideal to view the students at breakfast. But no one student stood out at being particularly more gluttonous than another. In fact he could see a number of students whom seemed to be abnormally ravenous today. He made a note of them, and then settled to eat his breakfast.


	2. The Sin of Gluttony

The sin of Gluttony

If it was one class Severus hated to teach, it was Potter's class. Not only was Potter in it, but his two Gryffindor shadows were too. Weasley didn't even bother to try, and Granger was a know-it-all that just _had_ to answer every bloody question. Severus was all for the pursuit of knowledge, but Granger didn't seem to have an off switch when it came to spewing all the stuff she had learned over everyone.

He sat and watched as the trio entered, Granger practically pulling the almost catatonic Potter behind her. His hair looked messier than usual, his tie was askew, his shirt was miss-buttoned, and his school robes hung down his left shoulder.

"Potter!" he snapped, "I expect N.E.W.T students to be _prepared_ when they come to class, and that includes being properly dressed. Ten points from Gryffindor!"

His words had little effect on the boy, who just tugged up his school robe. Granger reached over and began to straighten his tie.

"Granger! Potter is 17! He can bloody well dress himself! Weasley, there is no eating in the potions lab! Put it away!" he hissed.

Ron looked mournfully at his chocolate frog, but did as was bid. Hermione glared at Snape, but pulled away from Harry and sat.

The lesson progressed, with Hermione being more annoying than usual. Severus felt his ire rising and was about to lambast her when he saw Ron out of the corner of his eye.

"Weasley! I told you no food in the labs! Twenty points from Gryffindor and detention tonight, 6pm!"

Ron grumbled as he left the Dungeons at 9.30 that evening. He'd had to cut into valuable eating time at dinner in order to get to the Potions Classroom slightly early. Snape had been harsh as usual, making him scrape off the undersides of the desks and tables for the duration. He understood that he shouldn't have been eating in the Potions Lab, but knowing that the Chocolate Frog was in his bag; opened, proved too much for his recently increased appetite. Before he knew what he was doing, the sweet was in his mouth and Snape was on his back.

He'd been allowed to leave at 9.30 because Snape had a meeting with the Headmaster. Ron knew better than to look a gift hippogriff in the mouth, and had swiftly left the lab before the Greasy Git could rope him into another detention.

As he reached the Entrance Hall, he found that his feet led him down the opposite dungeon staircase instead of up the one that led to the Tower. He was confused but chose not to question the impulse as it led him to the kitchens.

"What can Jiffy be doing for sir?" squeaked a small house elf.

"Just thought I'd stop by for a snack before I return to the Tower." Ron explained, and smiled when half a dozen elves laden with plates and dishes approached the replica of the House Tables. He sat down and began to eat.

After twenty minutes of non-stop scarfing, a small voice in the back of his brain began to question why he wasn't full. The fact that he was still ravenously hungry worried him, but he couldn't stop himself from shovelling down more food.

The house elves tugged at his arms and squeaked loudly at him, but it was as though he had lost all control of his body as it simply ignored them and continued to gorge itself.

Severus and Minerva were sat in Dumbledore's office at half ten that evening, Severus having released Ron from his detention at 9.30. Dumbledore was explaining to them what he had discovered.

"The spell did indeed call the personifications of the mortal sins upon the school. Apparently, the last time it was used was just before the fall of Rome, and may have even started the process. That is why Christianity managed to get such a strong foothold, as it was a Christian who broke the curse."

"So how did he break it?" Minerva asked.

"Well that is when the information gets a bit sketchy. For a long while, the inflicted seven were killed off, but that only caused the curse to inflict seven others. The seven virtues were identified around this time, and the seven were encouraged to practise their opposing virtue whilst continually suppressing their sin. It was unknown how long the practice had to continue until the sin was purged and the curse broken, but it was known that the effort had to be made together as a group."

"But what do we do if we can't find all seven? We cannot allow known students inflicted with the curse to allow their traits further time to manifest, but by practising restraint, they won't break the curse unless all seven do the same." Severus said.

"Which is why we need to find the seven as quickly as possible. When a student is identified, they must begin to practice their virtue immediately so as to reduce the damage to their soul." He explained.

"What are the seven virtues?" Minerva asked.

"Temperance is the opposite of gluttony, patience to wrath, charity to greed, chastity to lust, diligence to sloth, kindness to envy, and humility to pride."

Minerva opened her mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by a loud crack that heralded the arrival of a house elf.

"Bitsy, what ever is the matter?" Dumbledore asked the elderly elf who was twisting the hem of her uniform between her long fingers.

"I is being sorry Headmaster, but we is having a problem in the kitchens! Weazy is eating everything! He isn't stopping, even when we is asking him to! I is never seeing anyone eats so much before!" Bitsy squeaked, becoming shriller in her bafflement.

"I think Minerva, Severus; we may have found our gluttony."

They all rose and left the office, descending the staircases to the kitchens. The sight that greeted them wasn't pretty. Ronald Weasley was sat at one of the house table replicas, and had stacks of empty dishes before him. He was plastered in food from where he had dropped it or missed his mouth in his haste to eat. It was truly grotesque, and all three teachers felt slightly nauseated by the manner in which Ron ate.

Dumbledore approached and shook his shoulder, but Ron steadfastly kept eating. McGonagall approached and tried along with the Headmaster to forcefully remove him from the table, but he became aggressive and elbowed the two out of the way. This went on for a while, the two elder Gryffindors becoming exasperated when the boy evaded their efforts and continued to eat.

Severus watched in equal parts amusement and disgust as his two superiors treated the teenager like a toddler, letting him go when he began to thrash about rather than restraining the idiot.

His annoyance got the better of him when the Headmaster and his deputy looked at each other in bafflement, so he simply took out his wand and stupefied the boy. He then, under the scandalised glare of Minerva and the disapproving look of the Headmaster, proceeded restrain the young Gryffindor in a strait jacket.

"I didn't want to use magic on him Severus. We have no idea what the curse has done to his core or how he might react to spells." Dumbledore chastised.

"Well if you would have said something before I cast the bloody spell then I wouldn't have cast it! Besides, he seems to be fine." Severus defended.

They were fortunate that it was so late in the evening, as there were no witnesses around to see the three members of staff levitating the prone body of the youngest Weasley male to the hospital wing.


	3. The Sin of Sloth

The sin of Sloth

Hermione was woken in the night by her Head of House. She groggily reached for her wand, and as quickly as she was able, pulled her school robe over her nightgown.

"Miss Granger, I'm afraid there has been an incident with Mr Weasley. The Headmaster has requested your presence along with Miss Weasley and Mr Potter in the hospital wing."

"The hospital wing?" Hermione asked worriedly as she twisted the bushy mass of her hair up, pinning it there with her wand. "Is Ron ok?"

"The Headmaster will be able to explain more. Please wake up Miss Weasley, and I'll wake up Mr Potter. We will meet you in the Common Room."

"Yes Professor. Harry's had a hard time waking up recently, so you may need to shake him or shout or something." She explained.

Professor McGonagall looked at her appraisingly, before nodding and leaving her room.

Hermione woke Ginny quickly, and she waited for them in the Common Room with the sleepy girl leaning on her shoulder. It was a few minutes before McGonagall descended the boy's staircase with a very wet Harry trailing behind. Hermione smirked at the Professor, but didn't comment. Ginny moved towards Harry tutting at his wet pyjamas, and fussed over him until the other women were huffing loudly in impatience.

The hallways were eerily quiet, the only sounds to be heard were their footsteps on the stone floors. They came across no one on their journey, no staff, and not even the palest glimmer of a ghost. It was if Hogwarts itself slept as not even the staircases moved.

Hermione was naturally worried about her friend, but took comfort from Professor McGonagall's unruffled and unworried countenance. She was inwardly glad that Professor McGonagall had escorted them when they turned the final corner to see Professor Snape sweeping towards them, black robes billowing behind him menacingly. It wasn't that she disliked the Professor, far from it, but had they been alone, he would have probably taken House Points despite their summons.

"Took you long enough." Severus muttered to Minerva as she reached him.

"Potter was hard to wake." She hissed back.

They entered the dimly lit war and were escorted past the all the usual beds to be led into one of the side rooms used for quarantining contagious patients. They were greeted by the Headmaster who stood next to the hospital bed holding a heavily restrained Ron.

"Oh my! What on earth happened?" Hermione exclaimed.

Severus sneered at the stupid question, for why else were they here if not for an explanation? Dumbledore cast him a stern look before conjuring extra seating around the bed; particularly comfortable squashy armchairs in an eye-wateringly garish array of colours.

Harry flopped down tiredly onto the nearest chair, Ginny immediately commandeering the seat next to his. Professor's McGonagall and Snape seemed to have a silent battle over the least garish of the chairs, each standing with a hand on it, and each attempting to stare out the other. McGonagall won somehow, gingerly seating herself in the fluorescent yellow and acid green chair. Snape took malicious glee in turning his chair black before seating himself, leaving the sickly pink chair next to him for Hermione.

"You remember I took memories from each of you concerning Tom Riddle's defeat?" Dumbledore began.

All four students nodded, Ron included for all that he was restrained.

"Good. Now, right before the battles ... culmination, Riddle cast an unknown spell. I required your memories to see if I could make out the words used for the casting." He explained, eyeing his audience. Hermione was listening intently; Ginny was half-heartedly listening but seemed more intent on stroking Harry's arm. Harry was staring dejectedly at the ceiling and Ron was looking around the room for anything remotely edible.

"The words that were used to cast the spell were 'omnis mortilus sin super illud intus'. Roughly translated it means 'all mortal sins upon those within'."

Unsurprisingly, only Hermione seemed to understand the Latin, and if her worried expression was anything to go by, she also understood the seriousness of their situation.

"The spell called upon the seven mortal sins to curse the school, and all those within." Dumbledore explained gravely. Even the twinkle had gone from his eyes.

"So Ron has been influenced by one of the deadly sins? I assume Gluttony considering his recent behaviour." Hermione asked.

Against his will, Severus was impressed by how quickly the Gryffindor know-it-all had grasped the situation, without having had it completely laid out for her. This annoyed him, as the little twit didn't need yet another teacher fawning over her in any way, even in his own head.

"Why won't the bastard just die and leave us alone?" Harry said in a tired monotone. Just hearing him lowered everyone's spirits a degree. Ginny immediately started comforting him, but Hermione had an epiphany.

"Professors." She said quietly, turning her back to her friends in order to completely face the three adults. "If Ron was affected, then isn't it possible that Harry could have been too?"

The three Professors' looked sceptical, so she continued. "Now hear me out, and really think about it. This depression he's in really isn't like Harry. If you think back to the summer after fourth year just after Cedric's death, and the summer after fifth year when Sirius passed on; Harry was depressed, yes, but he got angry. This... listless Harry isn't like the normal depressed Harry."

She saw all three were considering her speech, so she continued. "Sloth is one of the deadly sins, yes? Well Sloth can be separated into two areas, the physical body and the emotions. In the physical body, Sloth is manifested in laziness, unwillingness for any physical activity, disregard of appearance and hygiene, and so on. The emotional side is much like depression, but the listlessness takes a hold of the emotions too, meaning that he feels no emotion at all, he is completely indifferent to everything. We all witnessed that when Harry was depressed last year he lashed out with sudden bursts of rage and aggression, with Sloth influencing his mind and body that will not happen, as you can see. You could say anything to him, insult him, belittle his parents or something similar, and you'd get no reaction. This makes no sense unless you factor in the spell." She concluded.

She had been observing them as she spoke and could see that she had won over Professor McGonagall when she had mentioned 'unwillingness for physical activity', obviously remembering Harry's recent attempts to leave the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. She could also see that Professor Snape had been won over when she said 'disregard of appearance', the brooding man obviously thinking of Harry's half-hearted attempts at dressing that morning. Dumbledore however, didn't seem convinced.

"Depression rarely makes sense Miss Granger." He said dismissively.

She could see that McGonagall was about to defend her, and even Snape looked extremely irritated by the attempted brush off, but she felt something stir within her at being so casually by the 'Great Albus Dumbledore'.

She found herself saying a little sharply "What would convince you that Harry was being influenced by Sloth, sir? Had this been any other student, you would have agreed. Yes, Harry has had more to deal with than most." She barely managed to prevent her gaze from flicking to Snape. "But this isn't the way Harry normally reacts. Watch." She turned towards her friends and called "Harry!"

The dark haired boy lethargically rolled his head across the back of his chair so that he could look at her.

"Your father was a nasty bully, and your mother was a whore." She said.

Ginny swelled in anger, both McGonagall and Dumbledore gasped in outrage and Snape's black eyes glittered menacingly. Harry gave no reaction whatsoever.

"Did you hear what I said Harry?" she asked. He simply sighed and grunted in response. "Do you not care?" he shrugged and rolled his head back to the centre of the chair, once again contemplating the ceiling.

Noticing everyone's outraged glares; Hermione huffed and said "I didn't actually mean it! But see! He didn't even react! Whenever Harry had had his parents insulted before, we'd had to forcefully restrain him from hexing them black and blue!"

Dumbledore and McGonagall looked disapprovingly at her, but she didn't back down. She could see however, that Dumbledore was really thinking over her point this time, after all, the evidence was irrefutable in her eyes.

Severus was surprised to feel slightly admiring of the way the Gryffindor had insulted Potter's father, after all, he'd done so before and been nearly hexed for it, despite his position as a teacher. He had had to fight back the rage at the slur on Lily though. It was getting quite difficult lately for him to keep his cool. He was slightly jealous of the way she had stood up to the chiding looks of the elder Gryffindors; looks that even today Severus cowered at. His ire grew, bubbling near the surface. He really didn't want to admire the chit. _Next you'll be leading her bloody fan club, _a voice hissed at him from the depths of his mind. Luckily, due to immense practice during his spying years, Severus managed to keep his roiling emotions from showing on his face.

"I'm not saying that you should stop keeping an eye out to see if another student has begun acting Slothful, but please, consider this. Harry needs our help." The Gryffindor pleaded.

OoooooooooooooooO

**Thanks so much for the reviews everyone! Next up, coping with the sins!**


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